|
|
Calling All CounterPunchers!
|
home / subscribe / donate / books / archives / search / links / feedback / events / faq
Calling All CounterPunchers!
Annual Fundraising AppealWe interrupt your regular reading habits to bring you the following important announcement: CounterPunch needs your financial support!
We're not in the habit of making idle threats and this isn't one. Either we meet our fundraising goal of $75,000 over the next three weeks or we'll be forced to drastically curtail the operation of our website. It's near the end of our year and the wolves are gathering at the door.CounterPunch's website is supported almost entirely by subscribers to the print edition of our newsletter. We don't clutter the site by selling annoying popup ads. We tried getting money out of Google, but they gave us the boot. We aren't on the receiving end of six-figure grants from big foundations. George Soros doesn't have us on retainer. And we don't sell tickets on cruiseliners.
The continued existence of CounterPunch depends solely on the support and dedication of our readers. And we know there are a lot of you. We get thousands of emails from you every day. Our website receives millions of hits and nearly 100,000 readers each day-and those numbers grow by the month. Of course, all these readers chew up a lot of bandwidth and that costs money.
Through the Iraq war, the daily traumas of the Bush administration, hurricanes, fires, the loss of Habeas Corpus, the bailout of Wall Street and the betrayals of the Democrats, many of you have found a refuge at CounterPunch and made us your homepage. You tell us that you love CounterPunch because the quality of writing you find here every day and because we never flinch under fire. We appreciate the support and are prepared for the fierce battles to come. And, if Obama manages win the Presidency, you know that CounterPunch--almost alone on the Left--will hold Obama and the Democrats to account.
Unlike many other outfits, we don't hit you up for money every month ... or even every quarter, like our friends at Antiwar.com. We only ask for your support once a year. But when we ask, we mean it. Please, use our secure server make a tax-deductible donation to CounterPunch today or purchase a subscription and a gift sub for someone or one of our award winning books (or a crate of books!) as holiday presents. (We won't call you to shake you down or sell your name to any lists--even Dick Cheney's.)
To contribute by phone you can call Becky or Deva toll free at: 1-800-840-3683
Onward,
Alexander, Jeffrey, Becky, Alya, Deva and Kimberly
CounterPunch
PO Box 228, Petrolia, CA 95558
|
Today's Stories October 28, 2008 James G. Abourezk October 27, 2008 Michael Hudson Barbara Rose Johnston John Dinges Mike Whitney Mary Lynn Cramer Greenspan's Higher Power Alan Farago David Michael Green Andy Worthington George Wuerthner Niranjan Ramakrishnan Website of the Day October 24 / 26, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Ishmael Reed Mike Whitney Don Santina Scott Boehm Saul Landau Ron Jacobs Binoy Kampmark Linn Washington Jr. Nicole Colson Bernard Chazelle Brian Jones Christopher Brauchli Benjamin Dangl Val Strange Steve Early David Macaray Allison Kilkenny Richard Rhames Jim Bell Kris De Welde Barry Clemson Adam Engel Mark Scaramella Tuli Kupferberg Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend October 23, 2008 Allan J. Lichtman Todd Chretien John Ross Peter Morici Mats Svensson Marlene Martin Robert Jensen / Margaret Kimberley Deepak Tripathi David Morris Website of the Day October 22, 2008 Brian Cloughley Heather Gray Jeff Birkenstein Ralph Nader DC Larson David Swanson Keeanga-Yamatta Taylor Race and the Election: When the "Real" America Enters the Voting Booth Larry Everest Robert Fantina Martha Rosenberg Stephen Martin Website of the Day October 21, 2008 Vijay Prashad Paul Craig Roberts Corey D. B. Walker Steve Breyman Eric Toussaint Wajahat Ali Robert Weitzel Brendan Cooney Dave Lindorff Marqueece Harris-Dawson / Bob Wing Patrick B. Barr Omar Barghouti Website of the Day October 20, 2008 Michael Hudson Anthony DiMaggio Tariq Ali Uri Avnery Bill Quigley Ben Rosenfeld David Michael Green William S. Lind Chris Genovali Stephen Martin Howard Lisnoff David Yearsley Website of the Day October 17 / 19, 2008 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Pam Martens Paul Craig Roberts Mike Whtney Michael D. Yates Suzanne Smith Carl Boggs Ralph Nader Fidel Castro Dave Marsh Saul Landau Jo Guldi Kevin Zeese Larry Everest Steve Early David Macaray Ben Terrall Missy Beattie Don Monkerud Helen Redmond Dan Bacher Wajahat Ali Farzana Versey Vladimir Frolov Kim Nicolini Poets Basement Website of the Day October 16, 2008 Mike Whitney Jonathan Cook Ayesha Ijaz Khan Alan Maass Chuck O'Connell Mary Lynn Cramer P. Sainath Andy Worthington Peter Gelderloos Stephen Martin Douglas Valentine Website of the Day
October 15, 2008 Steve Conn William P. O'Connor Robert Weissman Jonathan M. Feldman Ron Jacobs Conn Hallinan Justin Podur Karl Grossman Dave Lindorff Eric Walberg Martha Rosenberg Uri Avnery Monica Benderman Website of the Day
|
October 28, 2008 First, End the WarsHow to Bail Out the TaxpayersBy JAMES G. ABOUREZK When Henry Paulson and George W. Bush crafted their “bailout” legislation, it was hardly surprising that the plan consisted of giving the money to the Wall Street criminals who caused the economy to crash, without external review by anyone. By the time Congress got through with the legislation, again, it was hardly surprising that this august body put some restrictions on it, but in the end, it gave taxpayers’ money to the large banks, “to get it circulating.” Getting it circulating is a good idea, but a great many people think that how they went about it is the wrong way. The problem with the trickle down theory of economics is that the people at the top of the heap—the ones who started this disaster—rarely let enough money trickle out of their hands to make a difference. Already, the big boys—Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, and others have set aside several billions of dollars for bonuses for their top executives. Burglars have guts, but these guys outdo the most brazen burglar. There is a better way, a way that has been proposed by such public minded people as Ralph Nader, and others, including me. The best way to circulate taxpayers’ money is to have the taxpayers themselves do it, through a massive public works program that would, at the same time, put a great many people to work, giving them enough earnings to allow them to trickle it upward to the small business people who are also hurt by the financial crash. I would suggest that, to start with, America should spend the money on the design and construction of a national rail transportation system that would be equal to, or better than, those systems in Japan and in Europe. Such a system would connect every single area within the United States--north and south, east and west. If we recall our history, it was the government in the middle 19th century that subsidized the railroad system back then that actually built America as a nation. Of course, we had to steal the land from the native Indians in order to do so, but when it was done, we had something that improved on the pony express and the stagecoaches to transport people. I am proposing that, instead of giving the $700 billion to the banks, hoping they will circulate it, we build the rail system and keep it in government ownership—just like Europe and Japan. Think of the number of people who will be put to work over the next 20 years while it is being built. Think of how each dollar spent on such construction would multiply as it made its way through the economy. Think also of how such a system would rescue our environment, using non-polluting sources of energy to power the trains. Part of T. Boone Pickens’ dream could come true by transmitting nationwide the electricity created by wind turbines, and by solar. There would be no more scams available by the oil companies repeating the mantra, “drill, baby, drill,” or, “let’s use clean coal.” As well, T. Boone Pickens could use part of his profits to give money to another Swift Boat Committee whenever he sees the looming danger of electing a Democrat being elected President. With such a rail system, it is safe to say that I, for one, would never fly on an airline again. What used to be pleasant for me when I boarded a commercial airplane is now an unwelcome chore. The seats are too small and too cramped. The search procedures, which, although necessary, are much too intrusive. In short, flying is no longer any fun. Because it’s hard to hijack and to crash a train into a skyscraper, we need not be searched when we board. And having the ability to get up from a comfortable train seat to stretch one’s legs without being glared at by a flight attendant is worth more than one can imagine. The other problem is that we would have to overcome the lobbyists for the airline industry and the automobile manufacturers. Maybe, when the auto manufacturers go to Congress, asking for money to make their cars more fuel efficient, Congress could add a condition prohibiting them from lobbying against a national train system. The same requirement could be placed on the airline industry, which comes, hat in hand, on a periodic basis for money from the taxpayers. I don’t think we would be subjected to too many cries of “socialism” with this proposal, or at least, not after John McCain and Sarah Palin are vanquished. And those who, under normal circumstances would scream about socialism, let them speak directly to AIG, Merrill Lynch and other socialist-leaning capitalists. The usual suspects who can be relied on to try to stop any positive program for the benefit of the public are slowly being silenced by the actual entry level socialism now being entertained by Wall Street and the big boy banks. Once the Iraq war is brought to a close, the $10 billion per month spending can be used to put people to work on the public works projects that would renew our infrastructure, such as repairing failing bridges and as well, renewing the highways. There are dozens of other public works projects that have waited too long to be worked on, so we will not be short of ideas on where to spend the money needed to revitalize the economy. At least bonuses for Wall Street executives will have to come, not from taxpayers, but out of the pockets of their stockholders. Once Dick Cheney is gone, we just may be able to stay out wars for the next 30 or 40 years. We should then be able to pay for all of these projects without going into national bankruptcy. Talk about retraining, plentiful jobs will be available in this new public sector for those who have been working in the arms industry, which will, without a war to fight, hopefully whither away. The real question is this: will our next president be able to bring the country around to this kind of thinking, or will he take the easy way out and, as Speaker Sam Rayburn used to, “go along to get along.” We are hopeful that he will not. James G. Abourezk is a lawyer practicing in South Dakota. He is a former United States senator and the author of two books, Advise and Dissent, and a co-author of Through Different Eyes. Abourezk can be reached at georgepatton@alyajames.net.
|
Now Available from CounterPunch Books! The Inside Story of the Shannon Five's Smashing Victory Over the
RED STATE REBELS:
Edited by  Buy End Times Now! CounterPunch Books of the Crossroads: HOW THE IRISH INVENTED SLANG By Daniel Cassidy AMERICAN BOOK AWARD!  Click Here to Buy! Click Here for Dates & Venues Michael Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz  Click Here to Buy! Saul Landau's Bush and Botox World with a Foreword by Gore Vidal  Click Here to Order! How They Made a Killing on the War on Terrorism     
    
 Humanitarian Imperialism By Jean Bricmont               CITY BEAUTIFUL By Tennessee Reed                   |
